Rowayton couple bought framed diploma at estate sale

By ROBERT KOCH Hour Staff Writer

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Sunday, September 18, 2011

@Subhead:Rowayton couple donates diploma

to Friends of Cranbury Park

NORWALK -- When Stephen Haywood of Rowayton bought an old and oversized framed diploma at a local estate sale several years ago, he was more interested in the oak frame than the person's name on the diploma.

He placed the framed diploma in his garage and didn't think about it until a month ago when he read about recent developments at the Gallaher Mansion in Cranbury Park.

"I was reading about the Gallaher Mansion and it mentioned it belonged to Edward Beach Gallaher. It took me a few days to look at the diploma to see if it was the same person and it was," Haywood said. "So I called (Friends of Cranbury Park). I said I had this doctor of engineering diploma from Stevens Institute."

This month, Stephen Haywood and his wife, Marie, presented the framed diploma to Friends of Cranbury Park, the nonprofit volunteer organization which has worked with the city to beautify the park.

Marie Haywood describes herself and her husband as "old house preservationists." And while the oak-framed diploma was a good find for Stephen -- he planned to place his grandfather's diploma inside it -- the historic item better belongs at the Gallaher Mansion and than in a garage, according to Marie Haywood.

"It just seems like the right thing to do is send it back to where it belongs. We'll find another frame," Marie Haywood said. "I'm glad to see (Friends of Cranbury Park) effort is going in the way of preservation."

Once the mansion is in better shape, the framed diploma will be hung on the wall alongside Gallaher's graduation photograph, according to Celia Maddox, Friends of Cranbury Park president.

"The gigantic diploma, handsomely framed in oak, seems part of a set. A portrait of Gallaher in doctoral robes is one of the few artifacts that remain of the Gallaher's life in their home," Maddox said. "The diploma must have been its companion piece, once proudly displayed somewhere on the walls of the now-empty mansion."

The 80-year-old Tudor Revival mansion once was home to inventor and industrialist Edward Beach Gallaher. He received the honorary PhD diploma on Feb. 8, 1950, fifty-six years after his graduation from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., and three years before his death, Maddox said.

About that time, Gallaher arranged to bequest to his alma mater his entire estate, worth millions, including the 22-room mansion, 220-acre property, and an internationally important business, Clover Manufacturing on Main Avenue, then one of Norwalk's biggest employers. Upon the death of his wife, Inez Gallaher, in 1965, Stevens Institute took possession, and, despite its promise to create a research facility there, had within the year sold the Cranbury property to the city of Norwalk for $1.5 million.

Maddox said the sale proved to be great luck for the city -- "it had gained its largest and most beautiful park." The mansion's contents, however, had vanished.

"The real life of the mansion had vanished, reappearing only here and there in somebody's basement or the occasional tag sale, to be noticed by lovers of old houses and history," Maddox said.

Maddox and Holly Cuzzone, an archeologist, spent years researching the mansion as part of their successful effort to have the historic building placed on the state and National Register of Historic Places.

The Haywood's gift comes as the city prepares to hire an architectural consultant to prepare a master plan for the Gallaher Mansion using a $20,000 state grant along with funds from the City and Friends of Cranbury Park. The master plan will assess mechanical systems and serve as the basis for repairs and restoration.